ABSTRACT
The dominant policy position of central banks in most developing countries is to maintain very low rates of inflation without much consideration for how these restrictive policies impact the real economy – outcomes such as employment, investment and economic growth (Epstein 2003). There is scant evidence that maintaining very low rates of inflation raises economic growth. Nevertheless, these policies remain a key feature of neoliberal approaches to monetary development policy (Epstein 2000). Gerald Epstein and Juliet Schor argue that anti-inflation policy and neoliberal approaches to central banking reflect the “contested terrain” of central banks – the class and intra-class conflicts over the distribution of income and power in the macroeconomy (Epstein 2000; Epstein and Schor 1990). Their work underscores the importance of understanding monetary policy from a political perspective, as the distribution of the gains and costs of economic policy lends insight into both a policy's genesis and its longer-term consequences. Class is one dimension of this contested terrain; gender is another.
